Research Bio

Since 1994, John Tomsick has been working in astrophysics, developing X-ray and gamma-ray instrumentation and using space telescopes such as NuSTAR, Chandra, and XMM-Newton for observations. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 1999, was based at UC San Diego from 1999-2006, and has been conducting research at UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) since 2006.  The Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) is a NASA Small Explorer (SMEX) mission, and John is the COSI Principal Investigator.  He is the Associate Director for Astrophysics and Exoplanets at SSL and a member of the SSL Executive Committee.  John’s recent published work has included results using current high-energy satellites and the COSI-balloon instrument to observe accreting black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, and Galactic emission lines.  Science areas include methods of determining black hole spins and white dwarf masses, uncovering populations of hard X-ray Galactic sources, and studying gamma-ray emission across the Milky Way Galaxy.

Research Expertise and Interest

black holes, Neutron Stars, X-ray astronomy, NuSTAR, accretion, COSI